Halloween
by hildekitten
Summary: Random intermezzo in my post Sonata series but it does follow up to Can't choose your relatives. Josef is hosting a Halloween party and everyone is invited. Are they ready for the surprise Josef is springing on them though?


_Classical music playing  
_  
**Mick's apartment  
Ophelia's room**  
The bed is empty, neatly made. The freezer is making a low buzzing noise. The girl inside is sleeping on her side, wearing a top and briefs as if she was so tired she couldn't be bothered completely undressing. A small layer of frost has formed on her hair and clothing. She's sleeping peacefully.  
Right up to the moment that Josef starts banging on the freezer.  
"Get up, get up, UP!"  
"What time is it?" she sits up as he pulls it open, wiping sleep from her eyes.  
"Time to accept the invitation for this Saturday's Halloween party at mine. Bring the flea-bag, and tell him dressing as a werewolf is not acceptable."  
With that Josef wanders off again and Ophelia tosses the invite on the bed, sighing before pulling the fridge shut again and falling back to sleep.

_Classical music playing_

**Mick's room**  
Sunlight has been blocked out of the room by heavy drapes, the freezer is humming softly but it's empty. Beth and Mick are sleeping in the bed, he has his arms wrapped around her. They look happy and at peace.  
Then the door is thrown open and Josef pulls the duvet right off them. Beth sits right up, shocked and glaring at Josef. "Josef! What if I had been naked!"  
"Beth! You act like I've never seen a naked woman in my 400 years!"  
He hits Mick with a pillow.  
"UP!"  
"This better be an emergency!" Mick grumbles.  
"It is, this Saturday at mine, Halloween party, be there! Or Simone will have my hide."  
He hands the invitation to Beth, who is clearly most awake and wanders out.  
Mick rolls his eyes and pulls Beth close to him.  
"I need to change the lock on the front door."  
She grins and kisses him "yes but first things first."  
He grins too and kisses her back, pulling the duvet back over them both.

***fade to Beth, Ben, Mick and Ophelia are in a store selling costumes, deciding on what to be for Josef and Simone's party.***

_Halloween - Halloween, ghosts and goblins taking flight  
Halloween, it's a screaming party howling through the night  
Halloween - Halloween, cackling witches whizzing round  
We've cast a spell, it's time now, to scare us up some fun!_

Ophelia is yawning, Ben and Mick are frowning at the things in the racks and Beth is looking through them. She turns to her friend for some support, realising that the boys are really not looking forward to dressing up.  
"As what are you going Ophelia?"  
"Poison Ivy."  
"Oh maybe we can do a Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn duo." Beth clearly likes that idea.  
"I am Not going as the Joker! There's bound to be several others doing that already!" Mick objects immediately.  
"I'm not going as a Batman character full stop." Ben adds his proverbial 2 cents to the protest.  
"How about something roaring 20ties like? Ben and Mick can be gangsters and we can dress up as flappers or Charleston girls."  
"Oh I like that! Very sexy!" Beth agrees.  
The men merely exchange glances and sigh.

***Josef's mansion, Halloween evening***

_They did the mash  
They did the monster mash  
The monster mash  
It was a graveyard smash  
They did the mash  
It caught on in a flash  
They did the mash  
They did the monster mash_

The zombies were having fun  
The party had just begun  
The guests included Wolf Man  
Dracula and his son

A lackey opens the door, showing them into the ballroom where the party is happening. There are snacks for the mortal guests, mostly freshies, some like Beth, partners of vampires. For the vampiric attendees there are pitchers filled with blood resting in bowls filled with ice cubes, the type written on neatly decorated tags in calligraphy handwriting.  
It all looks very posh and chique. A band dressed as voodoo skeletons is playing, quite a few guests are dancing, everyone seems to have a good time.  
Josef greets them as soon as they get in, he's dressed in a Regency era suit, which suits him perfectly.  
Ophelia whispers to her brother "he looks like he ran away out of Pride and Prejudice."  
Mick barely manages to stifle a snigger.  
"Welcome welcome! I love the entire twenties vibe you guys have going on! Make yourselves at home, enjoy the party, listen to the band play! Be ready for a surprise later on!"  
"What surprise?"  
"Now Beth, if I would tell you then it wouldn't be a surprise now would it!"  
With a mischievous grin Josef goes back to mingling.  
Ophelia doesn't wait 5 more seconds to drag Ben onto the dancefloor, leaving Mick and Ben behind to look around. It's clear that Beth is impressed.  
"Josef makes it a point to go over the top every Halloween." Mick explains.  
"I'll say! I wonder what his surprise is."  
"Mick, Beth, hello!"  
"Hey Logan." Beth returns the greeting, Mick nods and shakes hands with his geeky friend.  
"How do you like my costume?"  
"What are you supposed to be?"  
"You don't know Beth?" he sounds disappointed. "I'm a blood elf druid. You know, from world of warcraft! Damn, I knew I should have worn my jedi costume."  
"Best not, my sister would have made rude lightsaber jokes all evening." Mick tries to comfort Logan, to no avail.  
"Well between us, your sister can ride my lightsaber any time, too bad she's seeing that werewolf."  
Beth looks at him utterly appaled and Logan wanders off to Guillermo in his zombie doctor costume, who is flirting with one of the cleaner girls dressed like poison ivy.  
"Good thing Ophelia came as a flapper!" Beth notices.  
"Good thing she didn't hear Logan's comment, she would have punched him in the nose!" Mick adds.  
"Better than ripping his spine out I suppose!"  
Mick snorts, making Beth giggle in turn.  
Together they watch Ben and Ophelia dance before joining them the next song.

_This is Halloween, this is Halloween  
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!  
In this town we call home  
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song_

It's clear it's a good party, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, Beth is enjoying the opportunity of meeting more of Mick's vampire friends, who are coming over to say hello and talk. She's happy to see Ryder is back in the country, and giggles at the funny jokes he makes. Especially now Ophelia and Ben have taken up wandering around and she doesn't always see them around anymore. It makes her glad to have someone to talk to that she knows.  
"I'm dressed as the Joker, so I should at least attempt to be funny instead of engaging in techno babble with Logan all night!"  
Beth couldn't agree more, enjoying laughing with him and admitting that techno babble would be like Chinese to her.  
"Hey why are so many people wearing orange bracelets with spiderwebs? Are they some kind of party favour?"  
"You could say that, the freshies wear them so there are no incidents where a hungry vamp accidently mistakes someone's loved one for a freshie."  
"Oh…"  
"Don't worry, feeding goes on in private rooms." Ryder notices Beth being ill at ease with the freshies being marked and tries to reassure her.  
Beth nods, obviously taken aback.  
"Don't worry Beth, I've nicked a couple of bracelets, I'll give you one at home." Ophelia grins cheerfully, obviously oblivious to Beth's discomfort.  
"Ophelia you're such a magpie when it comes to trinkets!" Ben pulls his girlfriend close to him cheerfully.  
"Are you ok?" Mick sounds worried and squeezes Beth's shoulder tenderly.  
"Yes I'm fine. I wonder where Simone is."  
"Probably somewhere private with Josef, he's no where to be seen either." Mick reassures her.  
"I can't blame them, those private rooms are mighty comfortable."  
"Lia!" Ben interferes before she'll say even more.  
"What?"  
Ben blushes, obviously embarrassed.  
"I don't even want to know…" Mick holds up his hands as a clear signal that his sister is going right towards the too much information area.  
Beth just laughs at Ben's embarrassment, her mood immediately lightened, immensely amused when Ben tickles Ophelia as punishment.

_*classical music playing*_

Their attention drawn to the stairs from which Josef addresses them all after giving the band a sign to stop playing.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, might I have your attention please. I promised you all a surprise, and a surprise is what you will get. Now I know I have a bit of a reputation of being a playboy."  
"I'll say!" Mick shouts at his best friend teasingly.  
"Quiet you!" Josef shouts back with mock indignation.  
"So I'm sure that it will come to you all as a big surprise that I've decided to not only share my life with my lovely girlfriend Simone, but that I've decided to do so eternally."  
Several jaws drop collectively as Simone walks out, smiling radiantly in her beautiful regency dress. Mick and Ophelia inhale deeply, their eyes widening as they look at each other.  
"Did he turn her? Did he really?" Beth looks flabbergasted.  
"He did! He really did." Mick is as much in shock as Beth.  
"Wow, that's some surprise." Ben adds.  
"Must be some treat… Happy Hallowe'en I say!" Ophelia grins before walking over to Simone and Josef coming down the staircase and hugging them both.

**Mick voice-over**  
"Trick or treat indeed, leave it to Josef to spring surprises like that on Halloween. It's good to see him so happy though. As happy with Simone as I am with Beth. It really does give a meaning to the term "Happy Halloween"."

**Song list**  
Dmitri Shostakovich "Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 102, first movement"  
Dmitri Shostakovich "Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 102, first movement"  
Disneyland Paris 1999 "Halloween, Halloween"  
The Misfits "Monster Mash"  
Danny Elfman "This is Halloween"  
Dmitri Shostakovich "Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 102, first movement"


End file.
